<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Season 12, Day 79 by chicagotime</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30139749">Season 12, Day 79</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/chicagotime/pseuds/chicagotime'>chicagotime</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Blaseball (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Chicago Firefighters, Death, Grief, Multi, Mx. Chicago - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 17:41:46</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,412</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30139749</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/chicagotime/pseuds/chicagotime</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A 12x100 where Joshua Butt dies, and the Firefighters try to cope.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Isaac Johnson/Caleb Alvarado, Lou Roseheart/Rivers Rosa</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Season 12, Day 79</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>1.<br/>Joshua Butt wakes up and knows something is wrong. His eyes are closed, but he can see every part of his room. The rays of light peeking through his curtains are blindingly white. Everything feels too sharp and too soft at the same time. And something is poking his back.</p><p>He gets up, the carpeted floor scratching his feet. It feels like daggers slicing his soles. He tries to stretch his arms. His back tenses. Something else unfurls.</p><p>Oh no.</p><p>He runs to the bathroom and stares at the mirror. He sees the wings. He knows what this means.</p><p>Two Days Left.</p><p> </p><p>2.<br/>He told them. What choice did he have? He couldn’t keep it from them. Not after Tyreek. Not after Edric.</p><p>The wings keep stretching out, radiant, trying to brush against anyone and everyone that walks past him, desperate to hold onto the people he holds dear while he still has time left. Everyone else finds it comforting. He doesn’t. Too much work to do.</p><p>He can't go out on duty anymore (flaming wings, while symbolic, will probably kill him before his time), so he throws himself into community work. Food banks. Unions. Animal shelters. Declan's old lady coven.</p><p>It's not enough. It never will be.</p><p>One Day Left.</p><p> </p><p>3.<br/>Joshua Butt walks up to the plate in the last inning, the last game, the last day, he will ever have. The rest of his team, his family for the last two decades, try to keep him alive. They block his path. They pull him back. Baby holds onto an ankle, tears streaming down their face. The wings, gentle yet firm, push them all away. It’s his time. They can’t do anything about that.</p><p>He walks up to the plate. The ump stares at him. He gives them a tired smile, and bursts into flame.</p><p>He doesn't look back.</p><p>No Days Left.</p><p> </p><p>4.<br/>Gita Sparrow is. Five seconds ago, she wasn’t. In five seconds, she will be. In ten seconds, she will pick up the bat next to her feet and run. In one minute, she will realise that the jeers from the crowd are not for her. In one minute and ten seconds, she will realise why she is here. In one minute and sixteen seconds, she will figure out who she replaced.</p><p>In five minutes and seventeen seconds, she will cry, and no one will be composed enough to comfort her. In five minutes and fifty-nine seconds, she will look up.</p><p>In six minutes, Case Sports will burn.</p><p> </p><p>5.<br/>Goobie Ballson sits in the front seat of the team bus. He usually sits in the back, but nobody wants to be close to him, or anyone else, tonight. Which is fine. He understands.</p><p>He stares at his hands and thinks about the man he killed. Was José loved like Josh was? Was he admired as much as the best captain to ever pick up a bat? Did people miss him when he died? Chicago certainly didn’t seem to care that much. Mexico City didn’t seem that sad either. At least, not to Goobie.</p><p>But what does he know? He's just everyone's best friend.</p><p> </p><p>6.<br/>They say Lake Michigan is the river of lost souls, those who died kicking and screaming and refused to sink into the comfort of that which lies Below. Wesley and Swamuel were never ones for folklore, but desperate times call for desperate measures.</p><p>For six days, they search for the one they lost in the murky depths. Pale silhouettes drift past them, begging for impossible things in hoarse voices. But none of them are Joshua.</p><p>On the seventh day, Goobie appears, and calls out to them. He tells them it's time to play. They refuse.</p><p>They blink, and they're on the field.</p><p>Play ball!</p><p> </p><p>7.<br/>Socks Maybe is being crushed by a sleeping baby, its cheeks still damp and nose still disgustingly clogged with snot, even for a baby. Yet he remains.</p><p>He wakes up to find Baby already engaging in her morning ritual of chewing on her walkie talkie. Eventually, after much crying and ominous static, he forces her to eat.</p><p>In the afternoon, Baby continues to chew eir walkie talkie. They stare blankly into the horizon until Socks hits a button that has Butt’s voice. They stare blankly at the button.</p><p>At night, Baby sleeps fitfully, and Socks becomes a pillow once more.</p><p>It's the least he can do.</p><p> </p><p>8.<br/>Two roses sit on a bed, listening to the gentle humming of the city. They know they shouldn’t be together, especially after what happened yesterday. But times are hard, and everyone acts as if they aren’t. As if he’s still alive.</p><p>They cradle each other in the dimly lit room, silent. One is trying to block out the memory of what happened, the look on his face, the Wings running towards him, the wings spread out, radiant - </p><p>The other has already moved on. So Butt died. big deal. No use in thinking about it.</p><p>Two roses sit, and try not to cut each other with their thorns.</p><p> </p><p>9.<br/>Justice Spoon deals with Joshua’s death the same way she deals with everything: by throwing herself into her work. Today, it’s team building.</p><p>She sits at a table. Declan, Peanut, and Agan sit either side of her, glowering at each other. Their hands grip the edge of the table, knuckles turning pale. They’ve been like this for half an hour.</p><p>Justice sighs.</p><p>“Could one of you <i>please</i> roll the dice? There’s a property I have had my eyes on for at least an hour. Maybe more.”</p><p>Much grumbling and annoyed static ensues, but Justice is fine with that.</p><p>Anything was better than their isolation.</p><p> </p><p>9.<br/>Isaac Johnson sits in a garden with Caleb Alvarado, talking about the future.</p><p>Isaac talks about his work, how he’s not sure it means anything if everyone keeps dying. How he’s not sure if people will continue any of his projects after he dies. How he’ll be reduced to a name and a list of numbers.</p><p>Caleb talks about his garden, the thing he's spent years working on. He's worried about people not looking after it after he's gone. He's worried about how Isaac will be after he dies. He doesn't talk about his family, or how he might handle Isaac's death.</p><p>They sip their tea and worry that this will be the last day they'll ever get to drink it.</p><p> </p><p>10.<br/>Peanutiel Duffy walks into his house and hugs his wife. He greets his kids. He remarks on how much little Gettyimages and Shutterstock have grown, asks if they had a good day at school.</p><p>They all have dinner (roast brittle with mashed peanut butter on the side). The children complain about the stewed cashews. His wife points out that if they don’t eat their cashews, they can’t have their salted nuts after dinner. Peanutiel stares at his plate. He eats nothing. Nobody asks him about it.</p><p>Peanutiel washes the dishes. He helps his children with their math homework. He complains about the math homework.</p><p>He prays to the Shelled One to return his captain.</p><p> </p><p>11.<br/>Kennedy Rodgers sits in his workshop and calls his old teammates. He can’t turn to the Firefighters right now. The wound is too fresh for them, and he feels too new to lean on them.</p><p>He tinkers with a small clockwork bird as he talks to Winters and Four Star Pitcher Cell Barajas about his day. What he did. What he didn’t do. They ask him if he’s been taking care of himself. He lies and says yes. The bird starts to flap its wings.</p><p>He ends the call, his smile quickly fading. The bird takes off, circling the ceiling happily over a menagerie of rusted animals.</p><p>Kennedy hopes this one will last.</p><p> </p><p>12.<br/>Mx. Chicago does not leave Lake Michigan for several days. Every fire is met with a rush of water that floods the area. The sky is always cloudy, and always on the verge of raining. The Firehouse is always <i>slightly</i> dimmer than it should be, and the thermostat is always <i>slightly</i> too cold.</p><p>She knows that she should be stronger than this. That she should be comforting the team, <i>her</i> team. That she should be Mx. Motherfucking Chicago.</p><p>But she's not. She can't be. Joshua is dead, and she can't bring him back.</p><p>Eventually, she emerges. Chicago needs a captain, but they'll have to settle for her.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Yeahhh I know this is late. Sorry about that</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>